When Seattle in the USA asked residents to fill out a survey about their neighbourhoods the results came back with something that doesn’t surprise me. The neighbourhoods that responded the best were the neighbourhoods with the most active hyperlocal blogs and websites.

As Cory Bergman puts it:

the top neighborhoods had something in common — and it’s not population. “They already have a really strong blog presence in the neighborhood,” said Katie Sheehy with the City of Seattle. “There’s a lot of people already engaged in neighborhood issues through the blogs, and I think that’s what’s driven a lot of people to respond.”

The top neighborhoods are essentially a list of the most popular neighborhood news sites in the city — all of which have plugged the survey. From the West Seattle Blog (which makes up multiple neighborhoods in the list including West Seattle Junction and Columbia City, etc.) to our own My Ballard (Crown Hill/Ballard) and PhinneyWood (Greenwood/Phinney), and Capitol Hill Seattle and Central District News (Central Area). While many of us who run neighborhood blogs have known the sites drive community involvement, this is a great way to visualize the impact.